Libe: My first question would be to find out what idea you have of photographic art.
Signed by Gasteli: I have no idea about photography. I use it as a tool to express and share emotions. It is probable that the sculptor or the painter has no idea of the chisel or the brush. They also use it to give form to their emotion.
As you well know, the Moroccan writer Edmond Amran El Maleh devoted an article to your photos, and I was wondering (I still wonder) what you think of his way of approaching your art.
The text by Edmond Amran El Maleh is dated 1996. That is almost thirty years. It is the text of a man of letters and poet who draws inspiration from photographic work to present concepts and literary references by attempting to connect them to images, sometimes in a forced manner. I have excellent memories of this affable and humble man whom I had the pleasure of meeting several times in Tangier. We can just criticize the text for talking about the White Series by associating it with the book “Tanger Vues Choisies” of which they are not at all a part.
On the other hand, your photos, although they represent walls, have a face. Is this a way of expressing another conception of what we could consider as a simple object? In other words, does the fact of giving a face to the wall come from the fact that you think that a simple object is a face which looks at us at the moment we contemplate it, to allude to the work of Georges Didi- Huberman: What we see, what concerns us?
These images are rare. When we detect a shape that can evoke a face, it is more of an allusion that refers to the aesthetics of the mask than that of a face. It is true that, sometimes, the evidence is such that I willingly play on it.
In fact, the relationship that your photos express with the face is ambiguous, and the difficulty becomes more and more complex when we try to understand. That said, there is a key word that seems insurmountable regarding the question of the face, namely “ethics”. Do you think, like E. Levinas, that the relationship with the face is immediately ethical?
To be honest, I’ve never asked myself this kind of question. When I photograph, it is mainly a play between shapes, light, my aesthetic references, the camera and my gaze.
Finally, one might think that your work is a true spiritual quest. We actually notice that just as your photos are simple, they are also deep and complex. In your eyes, what would be the primary function of spirituality? Let us understand by this what makes possible a certain form of self-elevation, which does not necessarily involve religion.
The count. That is to say, identify what is superfluous and get rid of it. Keep only the essentials. Oversimplify.
Comments collected by Najib Allioui
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